MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture, first announced by Microsoft on June 16, 1983, conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation. It is said that Microsoft led the project as an attempt to create unified standards among hardware makers. Despite Microsoft's involvement, the MSX-based machines were seldom seen in the United States, but were popular mostly in Japan, the Middle East, Brazil, the Soviet Union, the Netherlands, Spain, and to a lesser extent, several other European countries. It is difficult to estimate how many MSX computers were sold worldwide, but eventually 5 million MSX-based units were sold in Japan alone. Before the appearance and great success of Nintendo's Family Computer, MSX was the platform for which major Japanese game studios, such as Konami and Hudson Soft, produced video game titles. The Metal Gear series, for example, was originally written for MSX hardware.